Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Lisa Marie’s Early Oscar Predictions For August

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s that time of the month again!

Here are my Oscar predictions for August.  By the end of September, the picture should be a bit clearer.  Until then, most of the predictions listed below continue to be guesses.

Be sure to check out my predictions for February, March, April, May, June, and July!

Best Picture

Babylon

Elvis

Empire of Light

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fabelmans

The Inspection

The Son

TAR

Till

Top Gun: Maverick

Best Director

The Daniels for Everything Everywhere All At Once

Todd Field for TAR

Baz Luhrmann for Elvis

Steven Speilberg for The Fabelmans

Florian Zeller for The Son

Best Actor

Austin Butler in Elvis

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick

Brendan Fraser in The Whale

Hugh Jackman in The Son

Harry Styles in My Policeman

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett in TAR

Olivia Colman in Empire of Light

Viola Davis in The Woman King

Danielle Deadwyler in Till

Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Supporting Actor

Tom Hanks in Elvis

Anthony Hopkins in The Son

David Lynch in The Fabelmans

Tobey Maguire in Babylon

Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Supporting Actress

Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Laura Dern in The Son

Sally Field in Spoiler Alert

Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Michelle Williams in The Fabelmans

Here’s The Trailer For The Son!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Look back on the 2020 Oscars, it now seems pretty obvious to me that, of the nominated films, The Father was the one that should have won Best Picture.  Of course, as far as I was concerned, The Father was actually a 2021 film but, due to the extended eligibility window, The Father was nominated for the 2020 Oscars.  Regardless of how one feels about all of that nonsense with the extended eligibility window, The Father was the best film out of the nominees and Anthony Hopkins fully deserved his second Oscar.  There are moments from The Father that were so powerful and heart-breaking that I feel as if I just watched them yesterday.  On the other hand, I can’t remember a thing about Nomadland, the film that actually won.

The Son has been described as being director Florian Zeller’s follow-up to The Father.  However, despite the return of screenwriter Christopher Hampton and the presence of Anthony Hopkins in both films (and despite the fact that Hopkins is playing a character named Anthony in both films), The Son is apparently more of a “spiritual sequel” to The Father than a direct sequel.

Well, no matter!  Sequel or not, The Son is expected to be an Oscar contender.  The teaser below doesn’t reveal too much, beyond Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern struggling to connect with their son.  Hopkins makes a brief appearance.  To be honest, the trailer feels a bit tense.  One gets the feeling that this is a movie about people who could explode at any minute.

Here’s the trailer:

Film Review: Toomorrow (dir by Val Guest)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1970ish film Toomorrow tells the story of a group of students who are determined to make their way through art school despite not having much money.  They do what they can to cut down on costs.  For instance, they all live in one big, communal house.  And even though they think that the protestors in the streets are totally groovy and happening in a far out way, they decline to really get involved with any of it because bail’s expensive.

(At least, that’s what I assume is going on in the protest scenes.  This isn’t exactly the most coherent film ever made.)

The students also pay for college by forming their own band!  Calling themselves Toomorrow, they make use of a new instrument called the Tonaliser!  The Tonaliser sends out sonic vibrations that put everyone into a good, dancing mood!  The Tonaliser is so powerful that the vibrations are even felt in outer space.

It turns out that there’s a group of aliens who have all the technology in the world but who have never figured out how to create music.  They really want to learn, though.  Music is the one thing that their society needs.  The aliens, represented by Johnny Williams (played by the great character actor Roy Dotrice, who looks embarrassed to be in this film), abduct Toomorrow so that Toomorrow can teach them how to appreciate music.  Toomorrow has no problem with doing that but they’re going to need help to focus or …. something.  I don’t know.  This movie is impossible to follow.  All I know is that an alien woman goes down to Earth to keep Toomorrow focused and there’s a scene where she’s taken to an adult Swedish movie so that she can learn about human anatomy.  Or something.

Yes, it’s Toomorrow!  A film about hippies that was meant to appeal to hippies but which was definitely made by people who were not hippies themselves.  The film does it best to show off its counter-culture bona fides, what with the commune and the art school and the protests and the band’s lead singer waking up with a different woman every morning and a barely there subplot about a professor having an affair with the member of the band.  But none of it feels very authentic, largely because all of the hippies are very clean-cut and none of the protestors are really protesting anything specific as much as they’re just walking around with signs.  All of the “shocking” counter-culture behavior takes place off-screen.  Randy Newman once described Horse With No Name as being “song about a kid who thinks he’s taken acid” and Toomorrow is a film that was obviously made by that kid’s grandparents.  As for Toomorrow the band, their music is nothing special.  In fact, there’s really not a single memorable song to be found in Toomorrow the film.  The aliens could have just waited a few years and abducted the house band from the Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

You may have noticed that I mentioned that the film was a “1970ish” film.  That’s because Toomorrow didn’t receive an actual theatrical release.  It was produced by Harry Saltzman (who also co-produced the first 9 James Bond films) and Don Kirshner, the music promoter who was responsible for The Monkees.  It was directed by veteran British director Val Guest.  When Saltzman and Kirshner failed to pay Guest and the rest of the crew for their work on the film, Guest sued and, as a result, Toomorrow spent decades held up in litigation.  It was only released on video because everyone who was suing eventually died with the case unresolved.

If Toomorrow is known for anything, it’s for being the film debut of a young Olivia Newton-John.  Olivia played a member of Toomorrow but she doesn’t get to do much, beyond smiling cheerfully while either performing and passing out tea at the commune.  Olivia reportedly had such a terrible time on the set of Toomorrow that she swore she would never make another film and nearly turned down Grease as a result.  That said, Olivia is probably the best thing about Toomorrow.  She’s the only member of the band with any screen presence and probably the only one of them who could have talked the aliens into not blowing up the Earth.

Toomorrow can be viewed on YouTube.  It’s interesting as an example of how much the old film establishment struggled to figure out how to appeal to younger filmgoers in the late 60s and early 70s.  Every moment in the film has been calculated to appeal to “the kids” but it’s precisely because it’s so calculated that the film ultimately fails.  There would be no tomorrow for Toomorrow.

Scenes That I Love: The Car Chase From The French Connection

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to the great William Friedkin.  As a director, William Friedkin revolutionized both the horror genre and the crime genre.  The car chase from 1971’s The French Connection has been much imitated but rarely equaled.

A few years ago, I attended a showing of The French Connection at the Alamo Drafthouse.  As exciting as this chase is, it’s even more amazing when viewed on a big screen.

Live Tweet Alert: Watch Zero Tolerance With #MondayActionMovie

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, we are watching 1994’s Zero Tolerance!  Selected and hosted by @SweetEmmyCat, Zero Tolerance stars two great character actors, Robert Patrick and Titus Welliver!  It also features musician Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac fame.  I’m not sure who Fleetwood plays but there was probably a lot of cocaine on set.  Here’s the trailer:

That’s really all I know about Zero Tolerance!  I plan to find out more tonight and I invite you to join me.  If you want to join us, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!  I’ll be there tweeting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.  And a review of this film will probably end up on this site at some point this week.

Enjoy!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 8/22/22 — 8/28/22

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week?  This week has been all about getting ready for October.  I know that I said the same thing last week.  Well, it takes a lot of work to get ready for a horrorthon!

Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week!

Film I Watched:

  1. The Astrologer (1975)
  2. The Astrologer (1976)
  3. Banzai Runner (1987)
  4. Buying Time (2019)
  5. The Cutting Edge (1992)
  6. The Day Time Ended (1980)
  7. Embrace of the Vampire (1995)
  8. Jack Reacher (2012)
  9. Power of the Air (2018)
  10. Test of Faith (1987)
  11. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)
  12. Vendetta (2022)
  13. Year 1999 A.D. (1967)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. Allo Allo
  2. The Bachelorette
  3. Big Brother
  4. The Challenge
  5. City Guys
  6. Full House
  7. Inspector Lewis
  8. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
  9. Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head
  10. Night Flight
  11. The Office
  12. Open All Hours

Books I Read:

  1. Capital Crimes (1990) by Lawrence Sanders

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Avril Lavigne
  2. Britney Spears
  3. Christina Aguilera
  4. Coldplay
  5. Hilary Duff
  6. Lord
  7. Lorna
  8. Moby
  9. Muse
  10. Radiohead
  11. Taylor Swift
  12. Yvonne Elliman

Trailers:

  1. A Jazzman’s Blues
  2. White Noise
  3. Empire of Light

Live Tweets:

  1. Banzai Runner
  2. The Cutting Edge
  3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2

News From Last Week:

  1. Actor and artistic director Robert LuPone dies at 76
  2. Controversial Art Critic Charlie Finch Jumps From Window At The Age of 68
  3. Actor Joe E. Tata Dies At 85
  4. NBC Could Give Third Hour Of Nightly Primetime Back To Local Affiliates
  5. Arcade Fire singer Win Butler accused of sexual misconduct

Links From Last Week:

  1. “Material Dimensions” : Work Sucks All Over The Universe
  2. The World’s Common Tater’s Week in Books, Movies, and TV 8/26/22
  3. “Surviving Paradise!” Living A Year On A South Pacific Island! Blue Lagoons! Swaying Coconut Trees – And Millions Of Flies!

Links From The Site:

  1. I shared music videos from Lorde and Muse!
  2. I reviewed Banzai Runner and Year 1999 A.D!
  3. I shared my week in television and an amv!  I shared a scene that I love from the Brady Bunch Variety Show!
  4. Jeff shared music videos from Accept, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Beastie Boys, and Guns N’ Roses!
  5. Erin shared Cosmic Science Fiction, The Gang Girls, The Wickedest Man, Amazing Stories, Pluto and Charon, Wake For A Lady, and Bedtime Stories!

More From Us:

  1. I wrote about Big Brother for the Big Brother Blog!
  2. At my music site, I shared songs from Radiohead, Lorna, Christina Aguilera, Hilary Duff, Britney Spears, Coldplay, and Avril Lavigne!
  3. At her photography site, Erin shared One Flower, A Squirrel and His Bread, White Rock Lake, Clouds, Clouds 2, Clouds 3, and Clouds 4!
  4. At Days Without Incident, Leonard shared Only Solutions!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/21/22 — 8/27/22

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Again, this week was mostly about getting ready for October.  Here’s a few thoughts on what I did watch:

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

Once again, Rene was mistaken for dead.  He even attended his own funeral, while disguised as Officer Crabtree.  Crabtree, of course, retired to Madame Fanny’s old bedroom, which led to all sorts of chaos when Fanny showed up.  It was, needless to say, a crazy time in Nouvion.

The Bachelorette (Monday Night, ABC)

Hometown dates!  Who cares?  Meatball’s not on the show anymore.  Gabby appears to be heading for another heartbreak while Rachel just can’t catch a break.  First, hardly any of the men wanted to date her.  Then, Tino’s family decided that they all hated her.  This is a messy season and it’s hard not to feel that it’s not going to end well for either one of the Bachelorettes.  Next week’s Men Tell All should be interesting and hopefully, Meatball will make a case for why he should be be the next Bachelor.

Big Brother (Everyday, CBS and Paramount+)

I’ve been writing about this season over at the Big Brother Blog! This season was going well until production came up with one of the worst twists in the history of the show.  Jasmine and Joseph are both gone.  Jasmine lost her fake limp and her fake accent when she was evicted.  For all the excitement over the Leftovers building a strong and positive alliance, it now appears that the show could very well be won by yet another unlikable showmance.  Do these words make sense to anyone who doesn’t watch Big Brother?

The Challenge (Wednesday Night, CBS)

Bye, Leo.  I’m still predicting a Tyson victory.

Full House (Sunday Evening, MeTV)

The first of Sunday’s episodes found DJ requesting that she finally be given a room of her own, which was a totally justifiable request considering how much older she was than her sisters and that Michelle, for some reason, had an entire room to herself while DJ was expected to share with Stephanie.  While DJ prepared to move and Stephanie dealt with feeling rejected, Becky and Jesse went to childbirth class, which was being held in the living room for some reason.  Becky got mad at Jesse because Jesse was being insensitive and talking about Elvis.  I assume they resolved the issue.  The second episode featured Danny freaking out because DJ was growing up and getting interested in boys and asking him to respect her privacy.  They worked it out.

Inspector Lewis (YouTube)

On the episode that I watched on Tuesday, David Soul played the murder victim.  Hathaway solved the mystery while Lewis dealt with a toothache.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Hulu)

On Wednesday, I watched “Conscience,” an episode from season 6 of NBC’s long-running legal show.  Kyle MacLachlan gave an intense performance as a man on trial for shooting and killing the 13 year-old who had previously murdered his son.  It was a good episode, thought-provoking and well-written.  It was an example of what the Law & Order franchise used to be like.

On Saturday, I watched a second episode from season 6.  In “Doubt,” Benson and Stabler found themselves dealing with a case in which a woman accused her teacher of raping her.  The teacher insisted it was consensual rough sex.  The episode ended before the verdict was read, leaving it to the audience to try to decide who was telling the truth.

Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head (Paramount+)

This week’s episode started with Butt-Head getting prescribed a new, grape-flavored medication that caused him to become so nice that Beavis freaked out.  Perhaps the funniest part of this segment was Butt-Head asking Mr. Van Driessen to lunch and then listening attentively while Van Driessen talk about the teacher’s union.  The second part of the episode featured the return of Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head, who provided us with a look at a universe where Beavis and Butt-Head were middle-aged.  Butt-Head was obese and could barely walk.  Beavis was an alcoholic with broken teeth.  It was realistic and kind of depressing.  However, it’s always nice to Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head.  “Very droll, yes.”

Night Flight (NightFlight+)

This was apparently an old 80s TV show that used to run on the USA network and which took a look at entertainment news.  I watched two episodes on Friday, largely as historical research.  The first episode dealt with the 1986 Academy Awards and featured a lot clips from the nominees.  The second episode was from 1984 and it dealt with music videos that had been deemed too violent to be aired on MTV.  The second episode was fun because it claimed to be a serious look at music video violence but instead, that was just an excuse to show the videos.  Cecil B. DeMille would be proud.

The Office (Weekday Nights, FaveTV)

I discovered two things this week.  Number one, I discovered that there’s a station called FaveTV.  Number two, I discovered that they air The Office late at night and early in the morning.  I watched two episodes on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  The first featured Michael and Dwight hanging out with Ryan in New York City.  Ryan attempted to talk to them about his drug use.  Michael started talking about how he couldn’t understand The Wire.  Dwight sang an Amish lullaby.  The second was the classic episode in which Stanley demanded to know, “Did I stutter!?”  This is one of my favorite episodes, both because of the final conversation between Stanley and Michael and for the B-plot of Pam forgetting her contacts.  I could relate.  Even though I can watch these episodes anytime I want on Peacock and I own the entire series on DVD, it was still kind of fun to watch it on an ordinary channel.  It made me feel nostalgic for the day before instant gratification.

Open All Hours (Sunday Night, PBS)

Arkwright continued to cheat his customers while Granville wondered if there was anything more to life beyond being an indentured servant.

AMV Of The Day: Keep Hope Alive (Initial D)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As the end of the August approaches, let’s never forget to keep hope alive.  Here’s an AMV of the Day to remind you.

Anime: Initial D

Song: Keep Hope Alive (by Crystal Method)

Creator: Toshi GG (please subscribe to this creator’s channel)

Past AMVs of the Day

Live Tweet Alert: Watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 with #ScarySocial

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1986’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2!

That’s right!  It’s Tobe Hooper’s classic sequel to his classic horror film!  It’s Dennis Hopper vs. Leatherface!  It’s Caroline Williams vs Chop Top!  It’ll make you laugh.  It’ll make you scream.  And the ending …. well, the ending always make me cry.

If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  The film is available on Prime and a few other streaming sites.  I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.